Hordichuk, 32, has been a spare part in Edmonton this season, appearing in four games while accumulating a grand total of 8:08 of ice time. In his last appearance on Feb. 6 against Dallas, he played two shifts totaling 49 seconds.

The former Thrasher, Coyote, Panther, Predator and Canuck signed with Edmonton prior to the 2011-12 season and proceeded to appear in 43 games for the Oilers, racking up 1G-2A-3PTS and 64 PIM.

That was good enough for a second deal with the Oilers — Hordichuk signed a one-year, $850,000 extension with Edmonton this past offseason.

Finally…

Anytime we write about Hordichuk on PHT, we’re obligated to post this clip.

It comes from one of Hordi’s first games against Vancouver after leaving the Canucks, in which he vowed to make life difficult for the Sedins et. al:

Eager, 29, suffered his concussion during a third period fight with Zack Kassian in Edmonton’s season-opening victory over Vancouver. Eager didn’t return to the game following the tilt, and has been held out of the Oilers’ last four games.

Peckham, 25, has yet to play this season due to a groin injury suffered during training camp.

The Oilers are set to embark on a three-game road trip through Phoenix, San Jose and Colorado, so it’s likely Peckham will make his season debut away from Rexall.

Edmonton has essentially gone without a tough guy in its forward rotation since Eager got hurt. Darcy Hordichuk has dressed for just one game — Saturday’s loss against Calgary — and only played 1:11, which still felt like too much.

“These young guns, the Edmonton Oilers, are going to be very good in the near future. But we’re a hard-working club and we laid on the body all night.”

The final hit count from last night was Stars 47, Oilers 33. Ott, Mark Fistric and Jamie Benn combined for 17 — more than half of the Oilers total. It was evident Dallas head coach Glen Gulutzan instructed his team to up its physicality against one of the league’s smallest and youngest teams:

So the blueprint for beating Edmonton is out, which presents quite a conundrum for the Oilers.

Not that it’s an entirely new one.

This problem plagued the team last year as well. In response, GM Steve Tambellini acquired the likes of Ben Eager, Darcy Hordichuk and Andy Sutton, making Edmonton tougher to play against.

But solving the problem created a new one: How much can they actually play?

Hordichuk is a liability. That, plus a hyper-extended knee, has limited him to just four games this year (with an average TOI of 2:24). Eager can play, but doesn’t seem as feisty as previous years (the Edmonton Journal called his play this season “underwhelming.”) Sutton’s the only one of the three on the ice enough to make an impact, but injuries and suspension have limited his effectiveness.

As such, Edmonton’s starting to see the difference between “tough” and “tough to play against.” There’s no denying that Hordichuk, Eager and Sutton are all tough — they combined for 19 scraps last year — but outside of chucking knuckles (and in Sutton’s case, the occasional cheapshot), they don’t make anyone’s life overly difficult.

“With our assets there are ways to beat teams who come after us that way,” head coach Tom Renney told the Edmonton Sun. “We have to make sure we play as physically as we possibly can. When we’re healthy we have enough to push back.”

The Oilers will likely get an opportunity to ‘push back’ tonight against Nashville. The Preds boast three very active hitters in Jerred Smithson, Jordin Tootoo and Shea Weber (and have a very willing fighter in Brian McGrattan.)

After all the spending Panthers GM Dale Tallon did on Friday locking up six players and helping the team get that much closer to reaching the NHL salary floor, day two of free agency proved to be a bit quieter all around. While there weren’t nearly as many signings on day two, the Panthers couldn’t stay completely silent as they inked former Capitals tough guy and crowd favorite Matt Bradley to a two-year contract to keep the peace in Sunrise as George Richards of On Frozen Pond reports. Financial details were not immediately available.

Bradley spent the last six seasons with the Capitals and provided a lot of toughness and guts on a team that sometimes lacked it. He was never an offensive player, but his tenacious forechecking and ability to fight kept him getting steady work in Washington. Last season, Bradley had four goals and seven assists in 61 games and accumulated 68 penalty minutes. Bradley averaged 10:34 of playing time per game last season meaning he’s good for solid fourth line time. He’ll be taking Darcy Hordichuk’s position as team enforcer after Hordichuk departed to Edmonton in free agency on Friday.

Whether it all pans out or not for the Panthers in their spend-crazy fit over the last two days remains to be seen, but there’s a major change going on in Florida and it’s fascinating to see it play out. With the way some of the contracts were handed out and how they’ll affect the free agent market in the future will be tough to watch in some cases. Either way, the Panthers are doing things for themselves and if coach Kevin Dineen can play the master chemist and put this all together to win it’ll provide a truly unbelievable method for how to put together a winning team.